Emergency and crisis are followed by international mobilization of the aid community to address the medical needs of those affected, as witnessed in Haiti, in recent disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the Nepal earthquakes and now Myanmar, which is currently experiencing its worst floods in decades.
But such disastrous scenarios don’t lend themselves to having the most qualified health experts already on the ground. What happens when it takes too long to get emergency responders in? Worse, when those on the ground aren’t properly prepared, get injured or fall ill to diseases endemic in the country?
In the first few months of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, many national doctors and nurses, not yet fully aware of the dangers of epidemic they were treating, lost their lives to the disease. Infections continued to spread even after international medical help arrived.